Dov Kornits
“I think the really special thing about Toni Erdmann is that it’s working on so many layers and that you can have your very own interpretation. I’ve had friends watching the same scene and one was laughing hysterically and the other one was crying because he thought it was really sad. And both are ok and both are right, and I think this is very rare to find.”
That’s producer Janine Jackowski, who happened to be in Sydney during a globe-trotting holiday with her family when Maren Ade’s Toni Erdmann was nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. “I’ve been in Sydney before with Maren’s last film Everyone Else, which played at the Sydney Film Festival, and fell in love with the city so I’m really happy to be back.
“But it was always clear that I would continue working,” she tells us when we wonder how she can be on the other side of the world during such an important time for the film. “I’m half working and half enjoying Sydney. In a few days I’m off to the US so it’ll be completely the Oscar thing.”
Jackowski is one third of Komplizen Film [translated as ‘Accomplice Film’), a company she co-founded with Maren Ade, a third partner, Jonas Dornbach joining more recently.
“After school I had no idea what to do,” answers Jackowski when asked how she got into this fickle career. “At one point my father got involved. He was renting offices to a film company so thought I should try it. They gave me a four-week scholarship to work there and I ended up at that company for 2 years because I loved it so much. After that working experience I realised that’s what I wanted to do and decided to go to film school to learn the basics. And this is where I met Maron. At first it was not our plan to set up this production company but it was really the short films and then her graduation film [The Forest for the Trees] became so successful that we did get some money. So we went for it. The first years were tough but now it’s getting a little easier.
“I would call myself a creative producer,” she adds. “We are a very director driven company. We really love to give our directors the maximum creative freedom. Everyone is very different. There are directors who want to work closely with you, and others who want to work in a closet. Both ways are ok.”
The best known filmmaker they work with is Miguel Gomes (Tabu, Arabian Nights), until now, with Maren Ade’s third feature film, Toni Erdmann, embraced by critics (here is our contribution) and festivals worldwide.
“With Maron, at first she had three ideas and we started to discuss them,” says Jackowski. “We thought that the father daughter story would be the best. She developed the treatment on her own, and then she comes to a certain point she asks for our opinion. And then we really discuss very intensely the psychology of the characters, of the script, the dramaturgy, the balance and the length of course. This also happens in the editing room. She’s always working until she has a version that is strong enough to go out.”
Aha, the length! For a modern character driven comedic drama, Toni Erdmann’s 160+ minute running time must have been a contentious issue, especially for a producer? “The length was a big issue,” admits Jackowski after a very long pause. “The script was something like 120 pages, so we were surprised during the shooting and then the editing room to find that this is going to be a very long film. And it’s not so easy to cut out anything because it all builds up on each other. We had some test screenings… And the editing took a very long time. Of course we knew that with that length we would have difficulties, and our German distributor was very unhappy with that length. We tried a lot to cut things out but we realised that it would be very easy for things to become banal. In the end we were very sure that this would be the very best version of the film. So it was easy to defend it but of course at the beginning it was not so easy to convince our partners…”
As Jackowski described, Toni Erdmann is a father daughter story, with the former verging on retirement and the latter too busy to spend any quality time with him. She works in Romania as a corporate high flying consultant, and when he turns up unannounced to remind her of the important things in life, the conflict this creates is both hilarious and touching in turns.
Unpredictably, the corporate suits in the story turn out to be more endearing than initially thought. “Maron did a lot of research,” answers Jackowski. “She really went to Bucharest and met all these business guys in order to understand their work. And as the saying goes, the closer you get to the enemy you start to understand it, or even like them, or even find it thrilling. This is also part of our complex world, it’s not so easy to point your finger at somebody and just say that you’re bad, because it’s never so easy.”
And what does this simple but complex story say about Germany? “It has something to do with our generation,” the producer answers. “For our parents’ generation it was easier to define themselves. There was the conservative party and the very left green liberal movement, rebelling against their Nazi parents, and really fighting for Germany to confront its past. Our generation is lost a little bit. There are no easy answers anymore and there are no easy values. The world has gotten complicated. And in that way, of course, it reflects modern Germany. Germany is economically really strong and that comes with certain responsibilities, which we’re not always aware of. This is the political layer of Toni Erdmann, and is super important to us.”
For a female producer who started her company with a female director/producer, there is one obvious question. “We are confronted with the gender issue a lot of times,” she answers. “I am very grateful that neither I nor Maron have felt such a big difference in the end. Of course, it’s true… in film schools there were 50% male and 50% female directors and producers, and if we now look at who is still working and can make a living at it, it’s mostly the male ex-students who we hear of. There are reasons, of course. We must start changing the conditions more, so that it’s combinable with private life and family life. I like to work with women, and I mostly find that they take a closer look at the psychology of the characters, and I am more into character and plot driven stories, so this is what I enjoy.”
Toni Erdmann is in cinemas February 9, 2017
